Behind closed doors
by The Paper Princess
Summary: After spending most of the summer with the Dursleys, Harry arrives at Grimmauld Place and overhears the members of the Order of the Phoenix talking about him. What happens, when Harry doesn't just accept that Dumbledore wants to keep him in the dark? One-shot


Behind closed doors

Harry stepped past Moody and entered what seemed to be the hallway of a very old and run-down house.

"Upstairs Potter." the Auror growled and Harry felt a strong hand being placed between his shoulder blades that more or less pushed him to the bottom of a staircase. He climbed up the first few steps and turned around when he reached the first floor.

Mad-Eye, followed by the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix, had disappeared into a room at the end of the hallway downstairs, judging by the smell that originated from the room, it had to be the kitchen. Harry was about to turn around again, when he heard his name being mentioned. The voice saying his name, Harry recognized, belonged to none other than Hogwarts' headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

Careful not to make any noise, Harry tiptoed down the stairs, which was easier said than done, considering that the stairs looked like they were hundreds of years old and creaked at his every movement. Standing in front of the door, one ear pressed against the dark, rotten wood, Harry held his breath, eager not to miss a single word of the conversation.

"It is of utmost importance that Harry does not hear about this." Dumbledore said.

"It's his life that will be on the line if any of this goes wrong." a voice interrupted, louder and firmer than Dumbledore's clear, but rather quiet one. Unlike Dumbledore, his godfather didn't exactly care about speaking softly.

"At this point, we have no other choice." Dumbledore said, barely audible through the heavy wooden door. "It would be dangerous to tell him anything. Dangerous for him and dangerous for the rest of us."

"Don't you think he has the right to know?" Sirius gave back rather bluntly.

"Harry will hear about all of it, when the time is right." Dumbledore answered. It was a simple statement, but there was something final to his voice that left no room for arguments. Sirius, however, seemed to not pick up on the subtle clue.

"He's my godson. I should have a say in what he hears and what not."

"He is fifteen years old! He's just a boy!" a female joined the conversation. This voice undoubtedly belonged to Ron's mother, Molly Weasley.

"Yes, he is fifteen and he has been through more than all people in this room!" Sirius barked more so than he shouted.

"Quiet! Both of you." Harry heard Dumbledore say- and then, suddenly, he could only hear the voices coming through the door in a subdued manner, before they eventually fell silent.

Confused as to what had caused the abrupt silence, he took a few steps back and rubbed his ears. Somewhere in the house, he could hear people whispering and heavy raindrops were hitting the window slides, yet there were no noises coming from the room in front of him. Slowly, he leaned against the door again, but this time, he felt an invisible barrier that did not keep his body from reaching the door, but caused his ears to become numb to all noises that came from behind it.

Pure anger filled Harry. Anger and hatred towards the old man behind the door. How could Dumbledore, a man who was nothing but the headmaster of his school, have full control over how much Harry should know about what was going on? How did he have the audacity to prevent him from making decisions concerning his own life? And not only that, but Harry's assumption that Dumbledore had actively tried to leave him in the dark- and therefore at the Dursley's - all summer long, had been right all along.

Without waiting even a second longer, Harry grabbed the door handle and turned it around.

The image that was revealed to him as he entered the room, his fists balled and raging in anger, would have been funny, if the situation hadn't been this serious.

About twenty people were sitting around the table, looking at him with wide eyes. Amongst them were Professor McGonagall, his old DADA teacher Professor Lupin, Bill Weasley and various other faces that he recognized. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting next to each other. To their right side was the real Alastor Moody, whose double ganger had been his teacher the year before, and Tonks, who had changed her hair color from purple to a poisonous green since their first encounter. And there, at the end of the table, sat Albus Dumbledore. The twinkle in his eyes had not completely disappeared yet and his clear, blue eyes were focused on a spot right above Harry's head.

Harry stared at him, stared at those clear, blue eyes and was just about to open his mouth, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The hand did not compare to Moody's, which had been stiff and cold- It was a small, warm hand that had given his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and had then turned him around. Harry wasn't the least bit surprised that he was now looking into Mrs. Weasley's hazel brown eyes.

"Harry my dear, what are you doing here?" she asked smiling, but also trying to lead him out of the kitchen while she was talking to him. "The Order is having a meeting, if you are hungry I can bring you a sandwich upstairs." she continued, but Harry wasn't paying attention anymore. His eyes had travelled from Mrs. Weasley back to Dumbledore, who was resolutely looking at the spot above Harry's head, and had finally landed on Sirius.

For the first time in weeks, a genuine smile spread across Harry's face and it grew even bigger when Sirius' face lit up as well. Seconds later, he felt himself being dragged into a massive hug by his godfather. Everyone in the room looked happy. Everyone except for two people.

Mrs. Weasley looked rather displeased with what was happening in front of her. Her arms were crossed and she shot Sirius, who had just pulled back from Harry, an angry glare. It was Dumbledore, however, who started talking.

"Harry, would you please go upstairs and stay in Mr. Weasley's room until we are finished here." Dumbledore said, still not looking into Harry's eyes.

"Wait in Ron's room? Really?" Harry asked provocatively. "How is it that I'm allowed to talk to my friends again all of a sudden?"

"Now is neither the time nor the place to talk about this, darling." Mrs. Weasley threw in, before Harry had a chance to unload all of his frustration on the headmaster. "Everything that was done, was done with your best interest in mind." she added matter-of-factly.

"My best interest? How is keeping me away from my friends and isolating me from the wizarding world in my best interest?" Harry spat, his eyes going back and forth between Mrs. Weasley and Dumbledore.

"Harry, all these decisions were made to keep you save, dear." she continued, not taking any notice of his growing fury.

"Well that worked out really well, didn't it?" he said, directing his words towards Dumbledore. "You did not have the right to keep me away from my friends." he said, his voice getting louder by the second. "Actually, you don't have the right to make any decisions for me, you are the headmaster of my school, that's it."

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

"None of us planned for things to work out _this_ way." Mr. Weasley spoke up, in an attempt to keep the situation from escalating.

Harry took a deep breath. After all, it was Dumbledore who he was mad at, not the Weasleys.

"Now, if Potter could do us all a favor and realize that the world does not revolve around him, this meeting would surely be more pleasant." a sneering voice behind him interfered in the conversation. Severus Snape, silent as a shadow, had entered the kitchen.

"Snape." Harry hissed under his breath. He didn't even have to turn around to know who had spoken, and the presence of his least favourite teacher only made his blood boil stronger.

"Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore corrected him quietly. Harry paid him no attention.

"Tell me Potter, are you really ignorant enough to believe that your problems with your little friends are important enough to interrupt this meeting," Snape taunted as he made his way around the table to sit next to the headmaster, "or are you just a cocky teenager and actually believe that you have the right to be here?"

"Given the fact that I was the one who saw Voldemort come back and fought with him, kind of, yeah." Harry scoffed and, despite all anger, sat down on a chair next to Sirius, to stop Mrs. Weasley from trying to lure him out of the kitchen.

"Potter-" Snape hissed.

"No!" Harry yelled, startling every single person in the room. "You left me at the Dursley's for almost the entire summer. I was the one who watched Cedric die. I was the one who fought with Voldemort. Without me, you wouldn't even know that Voldemort is back."

"I deserve answers." he said plainly.

The round was quiet for a moment. The silence was only broken, when Tonks accidentally dropped her wand on the floor and knocked a chair over, while picking it up again.

"Harry," Dumbledore started, "I am sure nobody in this room, including myself, would ever question your actions," he continued, looking at his long, entangled fingers, "but there is certain information that you must not know about yet."

"And why is that so?" Harry asked sarcastically. He was tired of everyone treating him like a child.

"Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley raised her voice again, before Dumbledore or anyone else could even open their mouths, "You are 15 years old, you are still just a boy, who-"

"Who what? Doesn't know anything about the world yet?"

"Who needs adults looking out for him." Mrs. Weasley finished, as if Harry had not interrupted her. "And we are all looking out for you." She said and reached to pat his arm, which only made Harry angrier.

"Well none of you were exactly _looking out for me _when the Dursleys starved me, or locked me in a cupboard, or put bars in front of my window-"

Harry sighed and forced himself to stop. Complaining about the Dursleys wasn't going to get him anywhere and it certainly wasn't the reason, why he had entered the room in the first place.

He felt Sirius put an arm around him and smiled up at his godfather, grateful for the comfort.

The round had remained silent, nobody- not even Mrs. Weasley- had tried to raise their voice when Harry had fallen silent, but when Harry looked at them expectantly, Mr. Weasley decided to raise his voice.

"I think what Molly was trying to say, is that we think it's for the best that you don't hear more than necessary." he said carefully and leaned back in his chair.

"Well I believe that it is necessary for me to know everything." Harry stated simply. "Voldemort has tried to kill me four times in the last 15 years." he added, ignoring the unified gasp coming from the Order members, when Voldemort's name was mentioned.

"Even more reason to keep you save, dear. You just have to trust Professor Dumbledore." Mrs. Weasley said.

"But people have tried to keep me save all my life long. And I don't know if you've noticed it, but most of the time, I was on the school grounds when everything happened." he said, looking from Mrs. Weasley to his teachers and Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore kept the sorcerer's stone in a school full of children, protected by obstacles that we were able to get around when we were only eleven years old. He didn't even notice that one of his teachers had Voldemort on the back of his head or that Professor Moody wasn't really Moody after all."

"Harry, all of my decisions-"Dumbledore started, but Harry cut him off.

"You didn't help me when I was forced to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, you didn't even try to get me out of it in the first place." Harry shouted, he was back on his feet again, both of his hands gripping the edges of the table.

"Harry, I won't deny that I made mistakes." Dumbledore said slowly. "It was a mistake to let you participate in the tournament. I should have done everything in my power to get you out of it." he admitted and looked at him for a moment.

"I don't regret keeping the stone in the school. I knew that Voldemort was out to get it and I knew that it was safest under my watch… I did however underestimate you and your friends." he finished, and Harry could have sworn that he saw the corners of Dumbledore's mouth switch slightly, but it only lasted for a split second.

"I have to admit that I never saw Quirrell as a potential threat. We did suspect that he was trying to get to the stone," he said, motioning towards Snape, who remained completely unfazed, "but I would have never thought that Voldemort would use so someone like Quirrell to get to it. That was a clever move by Voldemort."

"And I would have never expected anyone to defeat Alastor Moody." He gave Mad-Eye an apologetic smile.

"What about the Dursleys?" Harry asked. He had remained silent while Dumbledore had talked, but as it became clear that the headmaster was not about to address the topic himself, Harry was quick to bring it up.

"I can't tell you why you have to stay there every year, Harry," Dumbledore explained, "but it is necessary to keep you safe. I am afraid that you will have to trust me on this one."

"And what if I choose not to?" Harry said slowly. "What if I don't want to just take your word without any explanation?"

"I am afraid that you don't have a say in that."

"And what right do you have to decide where I live?" Harry asked. "Who gave you the right to decide what I can know? You are not my legal guardian, Sir. Sirius is." Harry said and looked over to his godfather pleadingly.

"I won't force him to go back if you don't tell him everything that he has the right to know." Sirius said.

"Sirius…" Dumbledore said, and his tone sounded almost threatening.

"He has the right to know." Sirius repeated brusquely.

"He isn't James, Sirius." Mrs. Weasley interrupted again.

"I am fully aware of that, thank you." Sirius snapped. "But he isn't just a normal fifteen year-old. What use is it too keep him in the dark? He will have to know sooner or later. He needs to be prepared, he needs to know what Voldemort's intentions might be and what he could do."

"Enough." Dumbledore said. "Sirius, I think it would be better if we continue this conversation in private."

"Under four eyes." he added, when he saw Harry getting up from his chair as well. Harry opened his mouth, ready to protest, but then he felt Sirius' hand gently push him back down again and nodded, understanding that it was time to let Sirius take over.

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Dumbledore's office

"We have discussed this." Dumbledore said, making his way around his desk, to sit down. Sirius followed his example and sat down opposite Dumbledore.

"We have," he agreed, "but Harry is right."

"You are putting Harry in grave danger if you tell him-"

"Tell him what? Sirius scoffed. "Harry knows that Voldemort is after him, it doesn't do much more harm if we tell him why." he reasoned. "And he has the right to know why he has to stay with those muggles every summer." he added. "He's already suffering enough"

"Yes, he is already suffering enough." Dumbledore said sincerely and nodded. "But it is too early. He is still so young." he sighed. "I don't want him to carry this burden."

"But he will find out one day." Sirius said, clearly frustrated. "And when he does, it might be too late. You know Harry. He has a talent for getting himself in trouble, but unlike most other teenagers, Voldemort is trying to kill him." he said. "_You_ are the one putting him in danger and you know it."

Minutes passed without either one of the two man speaking a single word. Finally, Sirius spoke up.

"If you don't tell him, I will."

"And that is your final word?"

"It is." Sirius said heavily.

"Go and get Harry."

HPHPHPHP

Thank you for reading!

After this conversation, Dumbledore pretty much tells Harry everything he told him at the end of book 5, just with the difference that Sirius lives in my version, because Harry knew what Voldemort might try to do and didn't go to the Department of Mysteries. ;)

If you have another minute, I would really appreciate it, if you could review this story and tell me what you think! I hope you all have an amazing day. :)


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